When all hope is lost
by Bunnyapocalypse96
Summary: The Doctor had been dreaming about getting Rose back for so long. The arrival of that day was supposed to be like a dream come true, so why did it feel like a nightmare? Journey's End AU - well, sort of.
1. Chapter 1

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Donna said, a small smile tugging at her lips.

The Doctor looked at her quizzically, not understanding the words. Moments earlier, he had gotten a very hollow pit in his stomach at the suspicion that Rose hadn't come back from the parallel universe after all. Now, Donna was staring at something over his shoulder that he couldn't see.

He didn't dare guess what it was.

When the Doctor didn't respond, Donna gave him a small, reassuring nod. Abruptly, there was a mutual understanding between the two best friends. Donna had answered the Doctor's unspoken question with affirmation. This gave him the courage to turn around.

And there she was.

Seeing the woman standing in the distance, too wonderful to possibly be true, the Doctor found himself unable to speak or move. All he could do was stare, utterly dumbfounded, at the blonde vision looking at him from down the street.

Then, she gave a dazzling smile. It was a smile that he knew so well, yet now seemed so foreign to him. It was the smile that was reserved solely for him. Recognition flooded the Time Lord's hearts and he could no longer stay still.

As he ran faster than his legs would allow, she ran towards him, as well. All the while, the Doctor and Rose stared into each other's eyes, sharing years of lost memories in one single look.

The inevitable happened. The Doctor watched on helplessly as Rose tore her gaze from his eyes and a look of utter fear manifested on her face. He found himself following her gaze to the monstrosity that was so out of place in this perfect moment.

"Exterminate!" the Dalek shouted harshly.

The Doctor heard Rose give an audible gasp and the next moment a sharp pain stabbed through his chest. He could do nothing as he watched the world tilt sideways. Rose's face slipped from his view and he now only saw her feet running towards him.

He felt Rose's warmth at his side as she scooped his head into her arms.

"I've got you," she told him softly, the panic evident in her voice, "I missed you. Look, it's me."

She smiled one of her brilliant smiles, but it didn't quite touch the dismay in her eyes. Through the pain, the Doctor still couldn't bear to see her as upset as she was.

"Rose," he said, trying to return her smile to set her mind at ease, "Long time no see."

Rose grinned at this. Despite the fact that the Doctor had just been fatally wounded right in front of her, she was still pleased to see that they could pick up just where they had left off.

"Yes," she said with a nonchalant shrug, "Been busy, you know."

The Doctor grinned; leave it to Rose to make him want to laugh while he was mortally wounded.

Then the cheer of the reunion was suddenly cut short as another stab of pain shot through the Doctor. This one was even more painful than the last. Rose's hands fluttered helplessly over the wounded Time Lord's body.

"Don't die," she pleaded with him, small tears filling her eyes, "Oh my God, don't die!" Her voice broke and she started crying outright.

The Doctor wanted to console her so badly. He wanted to gather her up in his arms and tell her that everything was going to be alright, but the pain was causing his whole world to blur and shake so badly that he didn't even know which way was up.

"Get him into the TARDIS!" He heard a man order.

It didn't take the Doctor long to realise that this was Jack's voice. He must have taken care of the Dalek after it had shot him. He felt a huge bout of gratefulness towards his former companion for ensuring that the thing hadn't gotten to Rose or Donna.

Soft hands lifted the Doctor, taking him away. He tried to focus on the sounds of the measured footsteps beneath him rather than the pain. He briefly noticed the sounds of Rose's quiet sobs and tried his very best to tune those out, too.

It wasn't long before the lights around him brightened and he felt the worried TARDIS's presence in his mind. He tried to reassure the TARDIS that he was going to be fine, but as a horribly familiar feeling sent a tingle through his fingertips, he realised that he might very well not be.

He was placed on the cold floor of the console room and instantly he felt Rose's hand resting on his arm as she kneeled beside him. The small hand reassured him once again that she was really there. Always there, always faithful.

Donna was there as well, her trembling hands holding onto his right sleeve tightly, "What do we do?" Donna asked in a panic, "There must be some medicine or something!"

"Just step back," Jack ordered, taking on the role of authoritarian. When neither of the women moved, Jack rounded on the one he knew best. "Rose, do as I say and step back! He's dying and you know what happens next."

"What do you mean?!" Donna asked, her voice now reaching a hysterical pitch. The Doctor felt a stab of guilt at not having explained to Donna about his regeneration cycle.

"You can't," Rose whispered softly, tightening her grip on his arm, "Not now. I came all this way!" With her face in such close proximity to his, the Doctor could see every tear that now fell from her despairing eyes. If he hadn't already been dying, this sight would probably be killing him.

"What do you mean?!" Donna shouted at Jack, growing steadily more hysterical at not getting her questions answered, "What happens next?"

The feeling in the Doctor's fingertips spread to encompass his entire hand. Lifting it painfully, he saw the golden glow that illuminated the veins there. "It's starting," he gasped.

"Here we go!" Jack cried and abruptly Rose was whisked away from the Doctor's side, "Good luck, Doctor!"

The Time Lord felt around until he found a not-so-threatening looking lever that he could use as a grip to pull himself up against the console. He tried not to groan too loudly at the pain this action caused him, knowing that Rose wouldn't be able to stand idly by and watch him hurt himself.

Rose. The Doctor felt a pain in his hearts not related to his injury as he thought of the fact that she would have to endure another one of his regenerations. A small part of him worried if this new regeneration would be one too many for her to handle…

Finally getting a good view of his companions' faces, the Doctor felt a pang of sympathy for the range of emotions they were all experiencing. Both Donna and Rose were now crying, with Jack, having slung an arm around both women, serving as an emotional pillar of stability. The Doctor didn't miss the worry all too evident in the immortal man's eyes, though.

If anyone knew what the Doctor was going through at the moment, it was Jack.

"Will someone please tell me what is going on?" Donna shouted once again, still in the dark about everything that was happening.

"When he's dying his body it—it tries to repair itself, it changes" Rose told her, now trying to stifle the tears for Donna's sake. Then, meeting the Doctor's eyes and truly letting the desperation in her own show, "But you can't!"

The Doctor met her eyes, desperately wanting to end the torture that he was putting her through. "I'm sorry, it's too late," he told Rose, breathing heavily in the effort to speak to her, "I'm regenerating!"

With that, the regeneration energy took over, flinging the Doctor sideways and causing his vision to explode into a million golden particles. Standing there, knowing that his friends were looking on in despair, worry and confusion, an idea abruptly sprung to his mind.

The Doctor knew for a fact that, just about two and a quarter paces away, the memento of his and Rose's 2006 Christmas that Jack had used to track him stood. Another interesting fact was that this memento was, in fact, a hand of his that had been chopped off during an epic sword fight with the Sycorax.

A hand that could possibly contain just enough residual regeneration energy for him to keep his face.

Standing there, the Doctor knew that if he went through with this newly thought out plan, one of three scenarios could play out: The first— the hand could not be able to contain the regeneration energy, causing it to backfire and destroying the TARDIS with everyone on board.

A messy possibility to say the least.

Secondly, the hand could very well be able to contain only a certain amount of the energy, resulting in the Doctor having only half a regeneration, leaving him with half of a new face and half of his old one. This situation would not be beneficial to anyone.

The third, most importantly, would be the scenario where the Doctor's mad scheme actually worked and he got to keep his features that he and many others had grown so attached to. Hopefully, if all the ifs and buts were in place, this would be the possibility that played out.

It's worth a try, he thought to himself as he pointed his glowing hands stiffly to the spot where the hand stood. As he felt his wounds heal, he willed the regeneration energy from his body, firing it like a cannon towards its target.

For one terrifying moment, it didn't look as though the hand was going to absorb the energy, bringing into play the severely unwished scenario number one, but thankfully the hand seemed to start taking up the energy after a while.

The final energy spilling from his fingertips and trickling into the clear air like golden, floating drops of water, the Doctor stumbled back and caught himself just before smashing into the large coral pillar behind him.

"Now then," he said, gathering his bearings, "Where were we?"

Donna, Jack and Rose just continued to stare at him with dumbfounded expressions on their faces.

Shrugging, the Doctor walked over to his ex-hand. "There, now," he said as he blew the small particles left by the regeneration energy from the jar. He smiled at the effect of the particles blowing in the air— it looked like fairy dust.

"You see?" he said, "Used the regeneration energy to heal myself, but soon as that was done, I didn't need to change. I didn't want to! Why would I?" he straightened his tie proudly, "Look at me. So, to stop the energy going all the way, I siphoned off the rest into a handy bio-matching receptacle, namely my hand. My hand there. My handy spare hand."

The Doctor looked at Rose, meeting her eyes squarely. He could still see the disbelief in her eyes, the scepticism that lay there, asking if he was still the same man.

"Remember?" he asked her softly, "Christmas day, Sycorax. Lost my hand in a sword fight?" He nodded towards the jar at his feet, "That's my hand. What do you think?"

Only now could the Doctor fully appreciate his reunion with Rose.

For an alien who had seen as many years as he did, two years should feel like nothing. Two years of her absence, however, had felt like an eternity to him.

Rose moved towards him uncertainly, taking each one of her steps with caution until they were only a few centimetres apart. She looked into his eyes, straight into his soul. Right there, both of them understood the significance of the moment. It was the moment that they had found each other. It was the reward they had wanted and had worked for, for so long.

"You're still you?" Rose asked him, a hint of that previous doubt still left in her eyes.

The Doctor couldn't help but give her a small smile. "I'm still me," he confirmed.

Rose smiled, tears of happiness threatening to form in her eyes. They had found each other and they were finally together. They had survived so much and worked so hard to reach the point where they stood right now, being able to look into each other's eyes and knowing that the other felt the exact same way they did.

They hugged. While holding her, the Doctor took in all the—_Rose-ness_ that he had so yearned for in her absence. The two held onto each other for dear life.

"You can hug me, if you want," Donna told Jack.

Jack laughed good-naturedly, but Donna was entirely serious. "No, really," she told him, "You can hug me."

Both pulling out of the hug simultaneously, the Doctor put as little distance as possible between him and Rose while still including the others. He now focused his attention on Jack.

"Now," he said, turning serious, "With us searching for pocket dimensions and whatnot, Donna and I have been out of the loop with everything that's happened here on earth since the planet was moved. Anything to report?"

Jack met his gaze solemnly, but didn't answer the question. The look that had suddenly filled his eyes sent a thrill up the Doctor's spine. He knew that look all too well.

The joyful reunion as swiftly forgotten as it had happened, an ominous tension settled around the four people in the TARDIS. At its centre, Jack and the Doctor stood, the former now dropping his gaze and staring at his feet just a little too intently.

"Jack," the Doctor prompted, "What's happened?"

Jack's face twisted into a mask of indecision for a second, judging whether it was wise to fill the Doctor in on what had happened. Above even his own feelings, Jack worried what the news might do to the Time Lord. The man had already been through so much…

"She just wouldn't listen," Jack began, "I tried to tell her. I really tried everyth—"

"Jack," the Doctor interrupted him, now truly scared of what Jack had seen, "Tell me what happened."

Jack took a deep breath, releasing it in a sigh that hitched slightly in the back of his throat.

"It's Martha Jones," Jack said, unable to meet the Doctor's dark eyes, "She's dead."


	2. Chapter 2

Sarah Jane sped frantically down the road of the silent suburb with her car. She tried not to pay too much attention to the abandoned nature of the quaint little houses around her and firmly blocked out any thoughts of what might have happened to the people that once lived there. Instead, she kept her mind trained on only one thought: the Doctor.

She had to find him. He would know what to do. He always knew.

Looking at the inherent danger that everything around her now seemed to possess, Sarah felt a stab of regret at leaving her son all alone at home.

No, she thought, shaking her head. She would not allow herself to worry about the different worst case scenarios that Luke could encounter. There was already enough to worry about already. Out of everyone, Luke was the one who was the furthest from danger.

Lost in thought, Sarah only glimpsed the flash of gold in the headlights of her car after it was too late. She stepped on the brakes so fast that the sudden stop almost gave her whiplash, but _not_ crashing into the two Daleks in front of her car wasn't much of a consolation.

"All human transport is forbidden!" One of the Daleks shouted.

The voice was cold and harsh, just as Sarah remembered it. Suddenly, she was in her early twenties again, just a scrap of a girl who knew next to nothing about outer space or aliens. All she knew was fear.

"I surrender!" Was all she could shout, knowing deep down that it would make no difference to the unfeeling creatures. She threw her hands above her head, shouting "I'm sorry!"

"Daleks do not accept apologies!" the thing responded, "You will be exterminated! Exterminate!"

Sarah tossed her hands over her head, even though this was a futile attempt. She had not expected it to end like this, all alone, murdered by one of her greatest enemies. She knew it was silly, but she couldn't help but hope that the Doctor would swoop in at the last moment to save her.

But no one came.

I love you, Luke, she thought. There was no flashing of her life before her eyes, no bright light in the distance. All there was, was her and the darkness and the Daleks.

What a cruel way to die.

The bright blue light came and Sarah Jane Smith knew nothing.

...

The two Daleks that had shot Sarah long gone, a ghostly quiet had settled in the abandoned street. This quiet was only disturbed once two shadowy figures suddenly popped into existence with big, honking guns on their hips.

"They let this place go since we left," Jackie Tyler remarked snidely.

Mickey wasn't listening. All he could do was stare at the little, light blue car in the distance and the grisly scene that lay within. "No," he whispered as he ran towards the car.

Inside, lay the lifeless body of a woman. The body of Sarah Jane Smith.

Mickey reached out a trembling hand in a last-ditch effort to feel for a pulse, but there was nothing.

Sarah Jane was dead.

Her hand was still draped across her face in an attempt to shield her face from the final horror that she had seen. It wasn't hard to imagine what that horror might have been.

Mickey clenched his fists angrily. "Where's your Doctor now, Rose?" he muttered angrily.

He knew that it was wrong to blame the Doctor for not having been able to save Sarah Jane, but that didn't mean that he wouldn't.

"Was she a friend of yours?" Jackie asked quietly as she came up from behind him. She put a soft hand on his shoulder.

"Friend of a friend," Mickey said curtly before turning away from the sight. He started walking in the opposite direction, away from the car and what had once been Sarah Jane.

"Where are you going now?" Jackie implored, rushing to keep up with him.

"I'm going to find Rose," Mickey said darkly, preparing the dimension jump around his neck and mounting the gun firmly, "Before she winds up like Sarah Jane."


	3. Chapter 3

The Doctor was sitting on one of the jump seats in the console room, his head in his hands. Rose sat beside him. She hated seeing him in such a state and not being able to do anything about it.

"This can't be happening," he muttered once again, "What was she thinking? How could she—This is my fault. She would never have been involved with any of this if I hadn't taken her with me in the first place."

He abruptly stood up in a blind rage and slammed his fist down hard on the console. "It's all my fault!" he shouted.

Donna had tear streaks down her face, too. "What happened to her?" she asked, her voice blank from the shock of receiving the news.

Jack shook his head solemnly.

Working for Torchwood over the years, he had seen a fair amount of death. He had just lost both Owen and Tosh, members of his team who he had been close to, but something about Martha's death was taking an unexpected toll on him.

He supposed that it was the cold, curt way that UNIT had informed him about it.

They had told him via his communicator just before he had found the Doctor. The message had been just four words long: "Dr. Jones is deceased."

Her death didn't just sadden him, it angered him, too. She had been his friend and he had had to make a special call to the higher-ups at UNIT just to find out what exactly had happened to her.

Apparently, she had used project Indigo to transport herself to one of the stations for the Osterhagen key's activation. Only, when she had arrived there, she had landed in the middle of a Dalek raid.

She was shot on site.

"The Daleks happened to her," Jack told them darkly, "Martha's death gives us all the more reason to put a stop them."

"Yes, but how?" the Doctor said, frustrated as he moved around the console with his hands in his hair.

He was about to set a course for UNIT headquarters, ready to give those red capped boys all that was coming to them, when all the lights in the TARDIS went out.

Rose started and automatically moved closer to the Doctor's side at this development.

The Doctor looked around him for a brief, confused moment, before realisation struck him with horrifying clarity.

"They've got us;" he told his companions darkly, "power's gone. Some kind of chronon loop."

The TARDIS shifted beneath their feet as they were pulled along. Somehow, the movement didn't feel the same as when the TARDIS was in flight herself. The movement was unnatural - more careless. Even in just transporting the time machine, the Daleks didn't have a care in the world for who they hurt along the way.

It was this apathy that made them the most feared creatures in the universe.

"There's a massive Dalek ship at the centre of the planets. They're calling it the Crucible," Jack said, his shoulders slumping hopelessly, "Guess that's our destination."

"You said these planets were like an engine," Donna told Jack, trying to get her mind off the mounting panic that her current situation was causing her, "but what for?"

Just as Jack was about to answer, the Doctor turned his attention to Rose. "Rose, you've been in a parallel world. That world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future. What was it?"

The Doctor regretted asking her this question as soon as the words were said. A haunted expression passed Rose's features, though she did a very good job of concealing the emotion.

"It's the darkness," she said simply. Then, realising that she was going to have to elaborate, she took a deep breath and continued, "The stars were going out. One by one. We looked up in the sky and they were just—dying."

She paused once again before deciding on telling the Doctor the whole story. He would find out eventually, anyway. "Basically we've been building this—er—this travel machine, this—dimension cannon so I could, well, so I could—"

Despite himself and the dire situation they were in, the Doctor felt a smile threatening to break out at the corners of his mouth. He already had an idea of what she was trying to tell him.

"What?" he asked her.

She sighed and a small blush crept over her cheeks. "So I could come back," she told him grudgingly. She knew for a fact that, had they not been in mortal peril or just found out about his friend's sudden passing, the Doctor would have given her a fair amount of grief for doing this.

The Doctor was smiling outright now; both delighted and amused by the fact that Rose had gone through so much trouble to find him again. She really had missed him just as much as he had missed her.

"Anyway," Rose said, trying to change the subject, "Suddenly it started to work and the dimensions started to collapse. Not just in our world, not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the void was dead. Something is destroying everything."

As if to reiterate her point, the TARDIS gave a violent jolt before coming to a complete standstill. From somewhere outside, the beep of a scanner could be heard.

The smile fell from the Doctor's face and he met each of his companions' gazes evenly.

"The Dalek Crucible," he announced solemnly, "all aboard."


	4. Chapter 4

The Doctor's companions stared in silence. Their faces all wore the same question to the Time Lord: What do we do now?

The thing that truly broke his hearts was the fact that he had no answer that would comfort them. This time around, there were no clever plans or schemes. He had already lost one person today, he wasn't planning on risking anyone else's life.

This time, all they could do was cooperate.

"We'll have to go out," he told them apologetically, "If we don't, they'll get in."

"You told me nothing could get through those doors," Rose said, stifling the terror that she felt at seeing the hopeless look in the Doctor's eyes. She had known him a long time, but never had she found the Time Lord at a loss for anything to do besides give up.

Perhaps this really _was_ the end, she thought fearfully.

"You've got extrapolator shielding," Jack said.

The Doctor heaved a great sigh, looking between Jack and Rose and hating their disappointment. "Last time we fought the Daleks, they were scavengers and hybrids, and mad. But this is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, at the height of its power. Experts at fighting TARDISES, they can do anything," He looked at them evenly, "Right now, that wooden door is just wood."

Jack nodded gravely. He understood what the Doctor was trying to tell them. There was nothing anyone could do. The situation was beyond repair. He had been naïve to think that they would never be caught like this. All they could do now was face their defeat with honour.

And maybe save just one more innocent soul.

"What about your dimension jump?" Jack asked Rose hopefully. Both he and the Doctor would agree that she was the one who should be spared.

"It needs another twenty minutes and anyway," she shifted her gaze from Jack to the Doctor. Her resolve became steely, "I'm not leaving."

Her look said everything. The third time around, Rose wouldn't fall for it again. She knew for a fact that the Doctor would try to send her away, out of harm's way, the moment that he got the chance. He would do it at his own, as well as the world's, expense - and she wouldn't stand for it again.

The Doctor gave her an almost inaudible nod, understanding what she was telling him without having to say a word. They would go into this together or not at all.

And they would make it out together, as well, he decided promptly.

"What about your teleport?" The Doctor asked Jack.

"Went down with the power loss," Jack told him.

"Doctor," A deep, grating voice sounded from the outside, "you will step forth or die."

"Daleks," Rose said quietly, shivering visibly.

"Oh, God," Jack breathed.

The Doctor looked at all of them, in the TARDIS, perhaps for the last time. "It's been good, though, hasn't it?" he said, taking a moment to remember all the good times and choosing, for the moment, to forget their impending doom, "All of us. All of it. Everything we did."

First, the Doctor looked at Donna, not knowing what to say to her to express how grateful he was that she had been there for him when he needed her. Instead, he simply said: "You were brilliant."

She nodded, understanding what his words really meant.

Next, he looked over to where Jack stood, grave expression still in place. Jack who, it was true, was a little bit of a flirt. Jack who, despite his flaws, always came through when you needed him. The man who the Doctor had abandoned in the year 200 100 on a satellite, yet who never held this against the Time Lord.

"And you were brilliant," the Doctor told him.

And then, finally, he allowed his eyes to meet Rose's eyes once again. He would not ramble on about what she meant to him, because how he felt really didn't need to be said. She knew (how could she not?) exactly how much he cared and how he would always feel about her no matter what shape or form he was in.

That was why, after a long pause, he told her: "And you were brilliant."

"Blimey," he breathed, before leading his companions out of the TARDIS.

As they walked in a straight line of four, Rose caught a flash of light in the corner of her eye. None of her friends had spotted it, obviously. She stopped just before exiting and turned around curiously to find the source of the light.

The Doctor had told them that the TARDIS's power had gone out, so what was...

Not seeing anything, she turned around to join the Doctor, Donna and Jack where they were already standing outside in the Dalek Crucible.

Just as she was about to take a step towards the door, however, the small light flashed again. This time, she was certain that it had come from the direction of the console.

"What in the—?" Rose took two steps towards the console, trying to pinpoint the origin of the light.

"Rose?" She heard the Doctor call from the outside, "What are you doing?"

Rose shook her head and decided that the light had just been a result of her overly hopeful imagination. She turned swiftly in the direction of the door, meeting the Doctor's gaze where he was peering in from the other side. Once again, she found herself trying to come up with a plan to beat the Daleks.

There _had _to be a way…

When she was less than a step away from the Doctor, standing ready to take her hand, the door to the TARDIS abruptly swung shut. She was suddenly flung into complete darkness.

With hollow pit in her stomach, Rose realised what was happening. The Doctor was trying to save her again. He was keeping her out of harm's way by leaving her behind, while he and the others were going to go and get themselves killed.

Well, she was not going to stand for it this time.

"Oh, no!" she shouted angrily, running towards the door. Her heart was pounding just as loudly as her fists were against the wooden barrier, "You're not doing that to me again!"

"Rose?!" came his voice from the other side of the door, sounding just as surprised as hers was, "What's happened?"

With a mounting sense of horror, Rose realised that the Doctor had just as little of an idea of what was going on as she did. That could only mean—

"What have you done?!" She heard the Doctor roar on the other side of the door, "Stop it! If you don't open up that door _right now_, I swear, I'll—"

"This is not of Dalek origin," a Dalek cut him off.

"Doctor!" Rose cried, banging against the door once again.

"Open the door! _Now_!" He shouted at the Dalek.

"This is Time Lord treachery!" the Dalek roared above the Doctor's shouts.

"What?!" the Doctor yelled back incredulously, "The door just closed on its own!"

"Nevertheless," Rose heard the Dalek say. The decisiveness in its voice sent a shiver up her spine before its next sentence was even said, "The TARDIS is a weapon and it will be destroyed."

The rest of the exchange was lost to Rose as the TARDIS was dropped down what she could only assume was a trapdoor.

The sound of the Doctor yelling her name followed her as she and the TARDIS tumbled into the abyss.


	5. Chapter 5

"No, no, no!"

Donna looked on as the Time Lord stared down the dark hole in dismay. For just a moment, the Doctor looked as though he might have some sort of emotional break, but then he swung around and all his face said was "do not mess".

"Where have you sent it?!" He shouted up at the Dalek. His dark eyes were burning white-hot with rage. For a second, Donna caught a glimpse of the man who had killed two alien races with just the push of a button. It frightened her half to death.

"The Crucible has a heart of Z-neutrino energy. The TARDIS will be deposited into the core," it told the already unstable Doctor.

This, however, seemed to send him over the edge.

"You will do no such thing!" He shouted fiercely, "Do that and there'll be hell to pay for the whole lot of you!"

"The female and the TARDIS will perish together. Observe, the last child of Gallifrey is powerless," the Dalek said, oblivious to the Doctor's threats.

A screen appeared in the air, depicting the TARDIS bobbing on the surface of the molten core of the Crucible. The Doctor looked at the screen in mute horror, realising that he was, indeed, completely powerless. Rose was dying and the Daleks were going to make him watch every second of it. All sense of bravado inside of him crumbled.

"Please," he pleaded quietly, keeping his eyes on the screen all the while, "Please, don't do this. I'll give you anything you want. I'll do anything. Please just let her go." He turned around. "She's my—my—"

Donna and Jack looked at the screen, unable to say anything. Donna noted that Jack's face had gone completely pale. He looked as though he was going to be sick. The entire room was deathly quiet, save for the Great red Dalek's contemptuous voice in the background.

"Total TARDIS destruction in ten rels," it said, "Nine, eight, seven,"

"Please," the Doctor said quietly. His entire frame was trembling and his head was slowly shaking from side to side as he watched the TARDIS start to disappear.

"Six, five, four," it counted down coldly.

"_Please!_" The Doctor shouted, steadily growing more frantic.

"Three, two," it continued.

"_PLEASE!" _He shouted hysterically, his voice breaking.

"One."

It was too late. The TARDIS was gone.

"The TARDIS has been destroyed," the Dalek said, its voice wracked with evil glee, "You now have nothing. The Daleks are victorious."

All the Daleks in the room broke into a chorus of "All hail the Daleks!".

The Doctor didn't care. It felt as if his emotions had been cut off completely. All he felt, was cold. He didn't care that the universe was in danger or that they were about to be killed.

All he felt, was dead.

Donna had tears in her eyes as she watched her best friend slowly sag in on himself in front of the now empty screen. The Doctor's face was pale and blank as he stood on his knees and stared into a space. Next to her, Jack's expression was a watered-down version of the Doctor's.

"B—bring her back!" Donna tried shouting at the massive, red Dalek. She realised that she must sound like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum to these ancient aliens, but that wouldn't stop her from trying, "You—you hear me? Bring Rose and the TARDIS back right now!"

Her eyes flashed to the Doctor's face, but no life flared in his eyes.

In his mind, the Doctor could now only see flashes of Rose: The way she smiled, the way she talked, the way her hair glinted in the sunlight—

"Tell me, Doctor," the Dalek said tauntingly, "What do you feel? Anger? Sorrow? Despair?"

The Doctor didn't turn around. "Yeah," he said in barely more than a whisper.

The way she held his hand, the way she hugged him, the way she saw things that others didn't, the way she always survived, always found her way back to him—

"Then, if emotions are so important, surely we have enhanced you?"

He was never going to be able to see Rose do any of those things again.

Donna heard the Doctor say something unintelligible. She assumed that this was a response to the Dalek's taunting words, but the response had been so quietly said that there was no telling what it meant.

"What was that, Time Lord?" the Dalek asked mockingly.

"You killed her," he said softly, pointedly.

"We have put an end to your treachery," it replied.

"No," the Doctor said, his voice now acquiring a very dangerous edge to it, "_You killed her_!"

Faster than a flash, the Time Lord was on his feet. Before anyone could make sense of what was going on, he ripped a small revolver from Jack's holster and fired three enraged shots towards the red Dalek.

There was no numbness anymore. There was only pain. It was the kind of pain that became disfigured in its own right— that manifested in different forms and became a malignant tumour on one's heart. At the moment, the Doctor's pain was becoming rage. An impossible amount of rage.

The way she danced, the way she kissed, the way she spoke, the way she understood exactly who he was, the way she never ran away from difficult situations—the images of Rose kept repeating over and over in his head, serving as fuel to the fires of his anger.

"Exterminate!" The Dalek shouted as the bullets simply bounced off its protective shielding.

The Dalek shot and the Doctor didn't care if it hit him or not, but the stabbing pain of receiving the final blow never came. With a grunt, Jack slumped onto the floor as the shot that was meant for the Doctor hit him squarely in the chest.

"Jack!" Donna cried, flinging herself onto her knees beside the dead man.

She looked up at the Doctor in dismay. "Did they kill him?"

The Doctor looked at Donna and down at Jack. His hardened features softened ever so slightly as he took in Donna's distressed state. "Yes," he told her, holding out a hand to help her up.

"Oh, no," Donna said, shaking her head in denial, "This can't be happening. This can't be real!"

The Doctor didn't respond.

"Escort them to the vault," the red Dalek ordered.


	6. Chapter 6

"Prisoners will stand in the designated area!" the Dalek shouted, "Move! Move!"

"I'm moving!" Jackie shouted back as she and Mickey were herded into the designated area on the Dalek Crucible with the other prisoners. After seeing the TARDIS being beamed up, Mickey had been insistent that they needed to head for the Dalek Crucible to find Rose. The only problem had been that the dimension jump had landed them smack dab in the middle of a prisoner loading zone at the head of the massive ship.

Mickey had been smart, telling Jackie to discard her weapon as soon as he spotted that escape would be useless. After dropping their guns inconspicuously into some air shafts, they had been taken, falling in with the other prisoners, to where they now stood.

"Mickey," Jackie said in a sotto voice. Her eyes were fixed on something above their heads.

"Wha—oh," Mickey spotted what Jackie was talking about. On the ceiling, hung a glowing green orb of light. When he looked again, however, Mickey realised that the thing wasn't simply a questionable nod to the Daleks' decorating abilities.

It was a weapon.

Having worked for the Torchwood institute back home for quite a while now, Mickey had grown to know a thing or two about alien weaponry. The bigger the gun, the more deadly the shot.

This gun was about the size of a rugby field.

"Mickey, it's lighting up," Jackie said worriedly. Prisoners were still being herded into the circle where everyone stood, but already it was clear what their purpose would be.

Mickey wasn't going to die. He first had to make sure Rose was safe, for one. They also still had to save the universe before all hell broke loose.

Looking around, Mickey spotted an out. A small door just a few steps away had been left slightly ajar. Though he had no idea what could be on the other side, he figured that this was probably as good a bet as any.

"Jackie!" he called silently, looking over his shoulder to show her the escape route.

But when he turned, he found that Jackie wasn't standing behind him anymore. She was several metres down the line, trying to help up a woman with an enraged Dalek screaming at the pair of them all the while.

"You will stand!" it shouted.

"I can't!" the terrified woman cried.

"You will stand!" it ordered once again.

"Please, I can't!" the woman was sobbing while Jackie, on her knees beside the woman, tried desperately to help her up.

"You heard her, she said she can't!" Jackie exclaimed in near-hysterical tones.

"Silence!" the Dalek shouted at her.

"Jackie!" Mickey tried to call as softly as possible. He had already moved a considerable distance towards the door. Suddenly, one of the Daleks started to turn in the direction of the noise he was making.

Before he could even realise what was happening, a hand was pulling Mickey through the small door and closing it in front of his eyes, limiting his view of Jackie to that of a small porthole in the door. Mickey struggled in whoever's grip he had landed, refusing to be taken prisoner a second time that day.

"Sssh!" he said furiously, clamping a hand on the young man's mouth, "It's me. It's Jack."

Mickey scowled as he remembered the face of the cheesy captain he had met once before. He shoved the hand away. "Jackie's still out there!" Mickey exclaimed.

"I know," Jack said gravely, "I'm sorry."

Mickey's eyes widened as the meaning of Jack's words became clear. On the other side of the door, the weapon above the prisoners had started to intensify its green glow. Still holding onto the woman that had fallen, Jackie was now worriedly staring at the thing above her head.

"We can't just leave her!" Mickey shouted at Jack, readying himself to bound out of the door to Jackie's aid.

"Do that and they'll kill you, too!" Jack said, holding Mickey still in a painful grip.

Mickey gave up on fighting and just stared in horror at the scene unfolding in front of him.

"Testing calibration of Reality bomb. Firing in ten rels. Nine, eight, seven…"

The great booming voice counted down to zero.

"Activate planetary alignment field," it said.

Then, struck with terrifying awe, Mickey stared as the large group of prisoners started to disintegrate into the air. For a brief moment, Jackie spotted Mickey's face through the porthole from where she stood amidst the horror. Her eyes held no contempt as she stared into his eyes.

She had no fear, that woman—not for herself, at least.

As the disintegration bore downwards through the crowd, Jackie shouted something at Mickey. He shook his head at her, trying to tell her that he didn't know what she was telling him. She shouted again. This time, her whole body shook with the force of her trying to get the message across. Mickey still couldn't hear what she was screaming, but he understood what she was trying to tell him.

"Find my daughter."

Mickey nodded at her reassuringly through the porthole. If it was the last thing he did, he would make sure Rose came out of this alive. It was the least he could do for Jackie Tyler.

Her face relaxed before disappearing completely.

"I'm sorry," Jack said behind him, bowing his head.

...

"Test completed," a Dalek said in the vault.

The Doctor bowed his head. He had seen everything. Had been _forced _to see everything. Jackie Tyler had been among that group of prisoners who were now all dead.

All he could do was stand expressionlessly in the small holding cell he had been shoved into upon his arrival in the vault. Beside him, Donna stood in her own holding cell, staring at his face rather than the screen where the cruel scene had just unfolded.

"Doctor, what's happened?" She asked him quietly. The Time Lord hadn't talked once since they had been taken to the vault.

"Electrical energy, Miss Noble," Davros said evilly. Upon discovering that the Doctor would be sharing a space with him, Davros had tried every trick in the book to pick a fight. Amongst Davros's taunting, however, the Doctor had not engaged once. He had simply remained standing in his holding cell, the same expression frozen on his features.

Davros continued: "Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field. The reality bomb cancels it out. Structure falls apart. That test was focused on the prisoners alone. Full transmission will dissolve every form of matter."

Donna felt a wave of disgust roll over her at the sound of the glee in Davros's voice, but what he said struck home. "The stars were going out…" she echoed Rose's words.

"The twenty seven planets. They become one vast transmitter, blasting that wavelength," the Doctor finally spoke. Rather than feeling comforted by this development, Donna felt a thrill of apprehension; the Doctor's voice was cold and blank.

The voice of a man who had been driven to the edge of his sanity.

"Across the entire universe," Davros said, sick excitement colouring his voice, "Never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the Rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every single corner of creation. This is my ultimate victory, Doctor! The destruction of reality itself!


	7. Chapter 7

Mickey was trying unsuccessfully to hold back tears as he ran after Jack. The corridors were twisting and turning at odd angles and Mickey knew that he had to pay attention to avoid a surprise ambush by the Daleks.

"Pull yourself together," Jack told him, glancing over his shoulder. The words were harsh, but they were said with sympathy. His friends' death toll was rising, and even Jack was finding it harder and harder to keep his emotions in check.

"That was Rose's mother," Mickey said, rubbing his eyes furiously, "When Rose finds out that I just left her there like that, she'll never forgive me."

Jack averted his gaze at the mention of Rose's name. He wouldn't tell Mickey. Not yet, at least. He needed Mickey alert; they were now the only two free men left on the Crucible.

They ducked behind a wall at the sound of two oncoming Daleks.

"So where'd you come from, anyway?" Mickey whispered, his eyes tracking the movements of the monstrosities as they passed, "Last I heard, the Doctor left you on some satellite in the future."

"Then you must be out of the loop," Jack told him, "I've been back for a while now. More than a hundred years, actually."

"Living in a parallel universe does that to you, I suppose," Mickey shrugged, "So, you're old too, then. Does that make you the same as the Doctor?"

"Don't let him hear you say that," Jack said, brandishing a small revolver from his holster. One revolver had already been lost after the Doctor's outburst earlier, but luckily he always kept two.

"I don't die," he said nonchalantly, "Don't ask. I was tracking the TARDIS and when I finally found it, we were caught in a chronon loop by the Daleks and brought here. I got killed for a few minutes, then I crawled through some ventilation shafts when no one was looking."

"Killed for a few minutes." Mickey echoed, "That must be a handy little trick."

"It is if you're in my line of work," Jack said, before holding up a hand to hush him. The passing Daleks were speaking.

"Squadron 5 has found the remains of the Doctor's former companion, Sarah Jane Smith!" One of the Daleks rasped, "Dalek Caan must be informed of this development at once!"

"Oh, no," Jack paled as he heard this news, "that brings the death toll up to five now."

"Affirmative!" the other Dalek grated, "I will go down to the vault to relay this information."

"Five?" Mickey whispered with a horrified expression, "Who?"

"Harriet Jones," Jack told Mickey solemnly, "She gave her life to the cause. She sent out the signal that the Doctor tracked to find earth. Martha Jones. She was ambushed by the Daleks in Germany. Then there's Jackie and—and—"He abruptly shut his mouth, breaking off mid-sentence.

"That's four," Mickey said slowly, unconsciously ticking the names off on his fingers, doing his best to process the new information coolly and clinically. He never was very good at being objective when it came to people, though, "So, who's—"

Something stirred in Jack's eyes. It was some sort of empathetic, sad emotion that caused Mickey to shift uncomfortably where he stood. Jack looked at him in silence, still with that grieving mask on his face, while Mickey continued to stare back uncomprehendingly. Why wasn't he giving him a name?

Then, something clicked.

"No," Mickey said slowly, his hands starting to tremble and his head shaking from side to side, "No, no, no, that can't be—that can't be right."

Jack still didn't answer. He knew that the moment he spoke the words, they would be final. The moment he said it, that sentence, it would be real. Not only to Mickey, but to him, too. Nonetheless, it had to be said some time.

"Rose died, Mickey."

"No," was all Mickey said. He blew the words out like a monumental sigh. Like all the air had been knocked out of his body. Leaning against the wall, he slid down onto his haunches, bowing his head into his hands, "No," he sobbed.

Jack put a hand on the young man's shoulder. "There was nothing anyone could have done," he said quietly, guiltily, "It all just happened so fast. The Doctor tried, but even he—"

"The Doctor," Mickey said loudly, all fear of being discovered by the Daleks forgotten, "He said he'd protect her. He promised Jackie. It was her dying wish! And now Rose is dead, all because of _him_!" He shouted the words angrily.

Jack tried to calm Mickey, to hush him before they drew too much attention to themselves, but it was too late. Behind them, an evil voice taunted: "Rose Tyler is dead. The female has perished along with the Doctor's TARDIS. The Doctor is powerless!"

"Oh, yeah?" Mickey said, getting to his feet. His eyes were filled with irrational anger and, most of all, utter hatred for the thing that stood before him.

"Mickey…" Jack said, knowing where this was heading, "Don't be an idiot."

"Who's going to stop me?" Mickey asked, his eyes filled to their brims with tears. He took a step towards the Dalek bravely. The Dalek, in turn, raised its blaster, "Because I know who the one that used to stop me from doing stupid things was, but she's dead now."

"You will surrender or be exterminated!" shouted the Dalek.

"Mickey, do what it says!" Jack told him urgently, raising his own hands above his head in surrender.

"Not a chance," Mickey said, lunging for the Dalek.

"Mickey, no!" Jack shouted.

A loud shot echoed through the corridor, but Mickey didn't fall. Instead, it was the Dalek who, with a horrific screech, fell to the floor in a flurry of flashes and sparks.

"Wha—?" Jack stared, at a loss for words, as Mickey turned around with a triumphant grin on his face. He held a small, metallic device in the palm of his hand.

"Raxicorican Ion Generator," he said, breathing heavily, "Found this baby in one of the Torchwood storerooms back home. Can short circuit any electrically charged machine you rig it on."

Jack was about to return Mickey's smile, acknowledge his ingenuity, when his gaze was abruptly drawn to the blossoming spot of red over the young man's heart. Mickey followed Jack's eyes and spotted the hole in his chest.

"Oh," he said, a grimace tugging at the edge of his lips, "Guess I should've worn some rubber gloves."

Then he crumpled to the floor in a lifeless heap.


	8. Chapter 8

"Stand witness, Time Lord. Stand witness, human. Your strategies have failed, your weapons are useless and the end of the universe has come!" Davros laughed maniacally.

"Doctor," Donna said quietly, leaning over as far as the holding cell allowed her, "Doctor, you do have a plan, don't you? I mean, this isn't really the end?"

The Doctor looked at her, his shoulders slumped with the weight of the horror he had experienced. There was nothing he could do now. He was trapped and everything he held dear was gone. For the first time in his long life, the Doctor really did feel utterly, completely powerless. He couldn't bring himself to tell Donna any of this, though, and simply decided to shake his head at her.

She understood. For the briefest of moments, her eyes widened in despair, tears forming there. Then she swallowed her emotions, finally deciding on saying something that she never thought she would say in the presence of her best friend.

"Then it really is over."

"Yes, it really is," Davros said, rolling his disfigured body over to face Donna, "And that is what comes from trusting a man who solves problems by killing his own kind. Did you really think that it would ever turn out any other way in the end?"

The Doctor betrayed no emotion on his face as he listened to Davros's words, but in his mind he knew that his age-old foe was right. He was reckless. Now, that recklessness had finally caught up to him, costing him the lives of so many people.

Costing him Rose's life.

"The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun," Davros said quietly, rolling over to face the frozen Doctor, "But this is the truth, Doctor. You take ordinary people and you fashion them into weapons. Your Children of Time, transformed into weapons. I made the Daleks, Doctor, but you made this!"

"Stop it!" Donna shouted defensively, "The Doctor was trying to help. He's saved this universe more times than you'll ever know. He does change us, changes everyone he touches, but it's always for the better!"

"Is that so, human?" Davros said snidely, "Because if it is, then tell me, how many have sacrificed themselves in the name of this Time Lord? Already today I have seen so many throw their lives away for their beloved Doctor. The earth woman, Harriet Jones, who fell opening the Subwave Network. Former companions Martha Jones and Sarah Jane Smith, taken in their primes in the name of a man too busy to save them. Mickey Smith, killed by his own devices."

A flash of shock flickered through the Doctor's eyes. Then, the pain came.

They were all dead. Every single one of them. He couldn't bring himself to hide his horror. He had caused their deaths. All of their deaths. He really had taken a group of ordinary, brilliant human beings and, because of his own selfish reasons, turned them into fighters. Into soldiers.

"And finally Rose Tyler—"

"Don't even say her name!" The Doctor shouted, emotions returning to him in full. They were all dead. All dead because of him. He felt the tears burning in his eyes and forced them down. He would show Davros and the Daleks. He would show them the true meaning of the oncoming storm.

"The Doctor. The man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not, out of shame. This is my final victory, Doctor. I have shown you yourself. Supreme Dalek, the time has come. Now detonate the reality bomb!"

Donna looked around her in dismay, looking desperately for some way to escape.

Of course, seeing as at least three Daleks were standing guard inside the vault and even more outside, attempt was rather futile. Instead, Donna and the Doctor had to resign themselves to their first row seats to the end of the universe.

"Nine, eight, seven, six," the booming voice of the red Dalek sounded through the ship, "five, four, three, two, one."

Donna shut her eyes, hoping that the end would come quickly.

But it never did.

As the countdown drew to a close, no blast came. Instead, there came a sound that caused Donna's pulse to quicken excitedly. Beside her, the Doctor found himself experiencing an emotion that he hadn't experienced in what felt like forever.

Hope.

Because as the Daleks and Davros screamed in dismay at their rapidly failing plan, the materialising TARDIS could be seen and heard in the vault like a great, shining beacon of hope. The big, blue box landed right in front of the Doctor and Donna, causing them to gape at it in awed silence.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Davros shouted.

"The meaning, you ask?" the Doctor said, even cracking a smile, "Faith, Davros, that's what this is! Good old, brilliant faith!"

The doors to the TARDIS swung open, revealing a young, blonde girl in the doorway. She was leaning against the door closest to her, propping herself up against it and breathing heavily. Her eyes were closed and her expression was that of someone who had an intense headache.

The Doctor stared at Rose. The only thing he felt was an undeniable sense of relief and joy. Impulsively, he took a step towards her, completely forgetting about the invisible holding cell surrounding him, but his step revealed that the holding cell had apparently disappeared. Upon seeing this, Donna tried taking a step forward herself, revealing that her cell, too, had flickered out of existence.

Moving both her hands to her temples, Rose stumbled forward unstably.

Davros gave a cold bark of laughter. "_This _is what you call foiling a plan? I was wrong about your warriors, Doctor. They are pathetic."

The Doctor ignored Davros and instead made to help Rose, but Donna beat him to it. Steadying her, Donna looked over Rose's shoulder and into the TARDIS itself, only now noticing the eerily bright light that seemed to be emanating from it. The Doctor had been, and still was, too wrapped up in Rose's return to notice it.

The Doctor reached the two woman and Donna passed Rose over to him. He held her tightly in his arms, shielding her from Davros and the Daleks with his body.

All the while Donna kept staring at the strange light inside the TARDIS. The way it danced was mesmerising. She just couldn't seem to take her eyes off its beauty…

Before she knew what she was doing, Donna had taken several steps towards the light and was standing just outside of the TARDIS doors.

The Doctor took his gaze off of Rose for a second and spotted Donna standing by the doors of the TARDIS, staring at something inside. When he spotted the light, he immediately realised that something was amiss.

There was only one source that could produce that bright of a light…

"Oh, no," he gasped, "Donna, get away from there!"

But his words were lost before Donna could hear them. A massive explosion of bright, white light shot from the TARDIS, flinging everyone in the vault, Dalek and human alike, onto the ground.

The light died as abruptly as it came, leaving everyone in the room temporarily blinded. The Doctor felt around frantically for a familiar hand, but came up short.

Then, as his eyes once again adjusted, he noticed that one pair of feet had remained standing through the entire ordeal.

He got to his feet and the view of the familiar black boots turned into a full view of Rose Tyler.

Or at least what had been Rose Tyler.

The Doctor's hearts fell as he saw the golden glow in her eyes. The glow that marked her for who she was in this form: The Bad Wolf.

"Rose, what have you done?" he murmured, taking a step towards the ethereal creature.

As he moved, his feet caught against a soft form on the floor. With a lurch of apprehension, he looked down and had his fears confirmed.

Donna lay on there, unconscious, but with eyes that were wide, staring and glowing. She had seen the heart of the TARDIS and her mind was rejecting the sight. It was burning her up from the inside.

"I am not Rose," the creature answered, turning his attention back to Rose, "I am the Bad Wolf. I used the regeneration energy from your hand to activate the dormant version of myself in the form of Rose Tyler. I opened the heart of the TARDIS to harness its energy so that I may put a stop to the evil taking place here."

"You?" Davros said incredulously, also recovered from the blast, "A mere girl? What can you do in the face of a fully fledged Dalek Empire? Daleks, exterminate her!"

The Daleks obliged, a group of eight moving forward and blasting Rose all at once. She did not seem fazed, however, and deflected all eight of the shots with a simple flick of her hand.

Her eyes burned with golden rage as she raised both hands and the eight Daleks disintegrated in front of Davros's staring eyes.

"That's—that's not possible!" Davros cried, "No one is powerful enough to harness that amount of energy!"

"I am," she said simply, "And I will put an end to the suffering you have inflicted."

She raised her hands higher and an image of the massive reality bomb appeared in the air. Then, the weapon started to disintegrate into millions upon millions of tiny, golden particles. Around it, Daleks were also dissolving into the air. Momentarily, the entire Crucible was alive with the agonised screams of Daleks being wiped from existence. Parts of the ship were disintegrating, as well.

Everything was disappearing around them.

"As for you, Davros," Rose said, her voice acquiring a cruel edge to it, "You are the creator of the Daleks. I have let you live to see the destruction of your creations, but now you, too, must return to dust. At the hands of a mere girl."

She raised only one hand and Davros was lifted into the air, his screams adding to the chorus on the ship.

Rose swiftly closed her eyes and clasped her hands together as if in prayer. Then, the glow around her brightening significantly, she opened her eyes while simultaneously throwing her arms wide. As she did this, Davros burst into a thousand golden particles, the echoes of his screams still floating on the waves that the particles created in the air.

The goddess-like creature allowed herself a triumphant smile, which quickly turned into a hardened mask.

"The universe is defended," she announced.

All around them, the screaming died down, growing ever softer until there was nothing.

Only silence.

A hand suddenly brushed hers and she turned around to look into the Doctor's dark eyes. All that lay there, was concern. Concern for her.

"Rose," he said seriously, "You can stop now. You did it. You beat them. It's over."

"No it's not," she told him dismissively, "I must erase them. I must ensure that they never attempt to commit such an act again."

"You've done enough," he said, the calm in his voice faltering, "If you do any more, you're going to kill yourself. Now, listen to me and just let it go. Let it leave you before it burns you up."

"No," she told him firmly, "I must ensure the safety of the universe. The needs of many outweigh the needs of one."

"Not this one," he said insistently, his voice acquiring pleading tones, "Please, Rose, please don't do this. The universe will be fine. You've already saved it and if it's ever in danger again, you and I will put a stop to it. Alright? You and me, in the TARDIS, just as it should be."

He looked into her eyes, realising that he just wasn't reaching her. He tried a different approach.

"I'm going to take you to so many different places, just you wait and see," he told her, meaning every word. He needed to find his Rose amidst the Bad Wolf that was controlling her mind. He needed to get her back before it was too late, "We'll go further than we've ever gone before! To the end of the universe and back! All that I need you to do right now, is to come back to me. Please, Rose."

The Bad Wolf didn't understand where the utter despair in his voice was coming from.

"I'm not Rose," she told him.

He took a small step towards her, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking into her eyes intently. "Yes, you are," he told her earnestly, "You're Rose Tyler and I—I—"

He took a deep breath before saying the words.

"I love you."

All at once, the glow was cut off. The light flickered out of Rose's eyes and she blinked, her eyes once again a pretty brown, several times before getting them to focus on the Doctor standing before her.

"Doctor?" she inquired timidly.

He grinned at her. "Hello," he said

"Doctor I—" she looked around her in dismay, her eyes finally resting on his. She had no idea what to tell him.

"Sssh, it's okay," he told her, pulling her close into a warm embrace.

There, Rose buried her head in his shoulder, taking in his smell, the feel of the hug and the feeling of being close to him in general. She took a deep breath and dismissed the sobs that were threatening to break loose in her chest.

This was all she had wanted for such a long time now. Just to be close to him. Just for the two of them to be together again. Everything she had done had been leading up to the point where she stood right now, in the arms of the man she loved.

And she was about to give it all up.

She pressed herself even more tightly against him for a moment.

Holding on for dear life.

"I'm sorry," she whispered as she let the tears spill.

The Doctor stiffened, but she was already pulling back. He realised what she was doing almost instantly.

"No, Rose, you can't!" he tried to grab her hand, but there was nothing there. He looked on helplessly as her hands and feet started to disintegrate into millions of golden particles before his eyes.

"No, please!" he said, taking a step towards her as she started fading away.

Blackness crashed down around him and the last thing he knew was that he was falling unconscious.


	9. Chapter 9

It was raining chaos all around them.

Jack ran, with Mickey's body draped around his shoulders, down the rapidly disintegrating corridors, searching for somewhere they would be safe.

A part of him knew that Mickey was already gone, but he had refused to leave him behind to disappear with those Daleks.

Mickey the idiot deserved a proper burial.

Jack knew that the Doctor and Donna had been taken down to the vaults and, assuming they were still alive, he figured that that would be his best bet in getting to safety. The Doctor would know what to do.

The way that the Daleks had been turned into dust seemed eerily familiar to Jack and he had a small inkling as to who was behind it all. He hoped he was wrong, however, because this idea brought up all kinds of new problems.

They had been running for what felt like hours through the massive Crucible, going down for what felt like hundreds of levels. Jack knew that the vault would be on the bottom-most level of the ship.

"No, Rose, you can't!" he suddenly heard someone shout.

Jack ran in the direction of the voice, knowing that his worst fears had been confirmed.

Indeed, when he rounded a corner, he stumbled on the very scene that he had imagined in his worst-case-scenario nightmares.

The TARDIS stood in the middle of the vault. Donna lay on the floor in front of it, her eyes glowing an eerie white. The Doctor was lying on the floor, too, at the feet of a glowing, floating mass of golden particles. The particles looked like a ghostly Rose Tyler.

But it wasn't her. Not anymore.

Jack walked into the vault and lay Mickey down gently next to Donna on the floor. He noticed that Mickey's eyes were open and closed them for him. Then, he turned around to face the ghost of Rose.

"Did you do this?" He asked her.

"I've stopped the destruction of the universe," she told him, "The stolen worlds have been returned to their rightful places."

"Good, but that's not what I meant," Jack told her, "I meant did you do _this_?" He gestured to the unconscious Doctor and Donna.

"It's better this way," she said, a flicker of guilt moving across her ghostly features.

"Better?" Jack said incredulously, "Do you really think that? Do you even realise what you've done? Rose Tyler is dead because of you! Everyone is dead!"

The Rose ghost remained silent for a moment, looking at Jack with a pair of golden, glowing eyes. "I'll fix it," she told him finally.

"You'll what?"

She raised a pair of ghostly hands. "I'll fix it," she repeated simply. She waved her hands and a wave of golden particles swept past Jack, "They will live."

"Who?" Jack asked, not understanding.

"Everyone," she said, "Sarah Jane Smith, Martha Jones, Jackie Tyler, Mickey Smith, Donna Noble - all those who have died purposeless deaths today. They will all live."

Jack looked at her for another moment before rushing over to where Mickey lay. Anxiously, he put an ear to the young man's chest. Inside, he could hear the thumping of a strong heartbeat.

"You brought them back to life," he said blankly. He noticed that the glow had faded from Donna's eyes, as well.

"I bring life," she told him.

"Hold on," Jack said, "last time you brought someone back to life - me, by the way - you did something wrong. You brought me back forever. How do I know you haven't done the exact same thing to my friends?"

"I never brought you back by accident, Jack," she said. Something had abruptly shifted in her demeanor. It was as though, for just a moment, Jack was once again speaking to Rose Tyler.

He looked at her, dumbfounded. "This wasn't an accident?" he gestured to himself.

She smiled a ghostly smile. Then, her face twisting into a grimace, she dropped her gaze to the sleeping Doctor. "He's so lonely," she said, "The lonely god, watching the universe pass by as he stands completely still. He needed someone by his side to look after him. Someone who understood how he felt. He needed you."

Her words were kind, sincere, but it only reminded Jack of who the Bad Wolf was neglecting to mention in her divine righteousness.

"And Rose Tyler?" he said almost angrily, "What about her?"

"You know I can't bring her back," she said, another bout of guilt flickering across her face, "She has sacrificed herself in the interest of the greater good."

Jack nodded. He knew that there was going to be a catch. She could bring everyone back, except the one that the Doctor needed the most.

"So tell me then, Bad Wolf, how good are you at repairing emotional scars?" he asked, his anger now outright, "Because you've just left a mother without her child and the rest of us missing a dear friend."

The ghost nodded. "I've sent Jackie Tyler back to her parallel world. She's living there with her husband and her son. She has no memory of ever having a daughter," she said the words emotionlessly, but Jack caught the flash of sadness in her eyes.

"Donna Noble has seen into the heart of TARDIS and has gathered knowledge of the Time Vortex," she continued quickly, stifling the sadness, "I've removed all knowledge of time travel from her mind so as not to damage it. When she wakes, she'll have no memory of any of her experiences with the Doctor. She can never remember."

"And the rest of us?" Jack asked, "Will you make us forget, too?"

"I can't," she admitted, "But I will change what you remember. I'm going to change the story, but not the outcome. I've made Donna Noble everyone's saviour. For one shining moment, the woman who never believed that she was important will be the most important woman in the universe. That's how she will be remembered, even though she won't remember herself."

"That's a very Rose thing to do," Jack said thoughtfully, "Speaking of which, how do you expect the Doctor will handle this? Because I've seen how he deals with Rose Tyler dying, and it's not pretty. Do you really think he'll be able to cope with it a third time around?" he said the words furiously, knowing how much pain her transformation was going to cause the Doctor.

If it hadn't already, Jack thought as he eyed the unconscious man on the floor.

Even in sleep, Jack could see the pain that was evident on his friend's face.

"I've given him what he needs," she said, not even attempting to hide the sadness in her voice when she spoke of the Doctor, "I've told him that Rose Tyler is safe and happy. He will remember that Rose has found someone that she loves and is living her life blissfully in the parallel universe. I can't take away the sadness completely, but I can offer him closure. He will forever remember that his Rose had gotten her happy ending."

She remained quiet for a long time, some kind of unfathomable expression in her glowing eyes.

"Someday, that knowledge will help him to move on," she finally said.

"And what about you? Where will you go?" Jack asked.

"I go where the Bad Wolf leads me," she said mysteriously. Then, giving a very Rose-like smile, she gave a step towards Jack and planted a soft kiss on his cheek, "Take care, Jack."

Jack Harkness watched Rose's ghostly face as he slowly fell out of consciousness, losing all the knowledge that he had gathered and slipping into peaceful bliss.

The echo of Rose Tyler watched her friends fade away as the Bad Wolf transported them and the TARDIS back to their world.

Finally at peace, knowing that the ones she loved would be alright, it was time for Rose to say goodbye to the world she knew.

She allowed the wolf to take control.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's note: So this is just a little epilogue to wrap everything up...thank you so so so much for all your reviews! I sincerely hope you liked the story (albeit just for the content and not for the ending!)**

**Oh, and for those of you following my other stories, there's a whole bunch of updates coming to you on Saturday to make up for today's lack of new material.**

**Happy reading! :)**

**...**

The Doctor stood by the console of his TARDIS, alone once again.

In the end, they had won.

Sure, he had lost Rose to a metacrisis version of himself, but at least he knew that she would be able to live her life. She had someone to grow old with and, in the parallel universe, that person was him.

Sure, he had lost Donna. She would never remember any of their adventures or the wonderful person that she had become during their course, but at least she wasn't dead. She was going to have a brilliant, normal life; get married, have children, everything that a person could want.

Martha and Mickey were going to go work with Jack at Torchwood. They were going to continue saving the universe and they were going to be amazing at it.

Sarah Jane had gone home to her son after they had landed. She was going to live her life just as she always had. A happy, little life with her son and his friends.

Those kids really were brilliant, too.

Everything had worked out great, he thought to himself. They had all made it out of this disaster in one piece.

Hadn't they?

Usually, the Doctor found comfort in these little consolations, but for some reason he couldn't bring himself to do it this time around. The grief he felt was almost crippling, and he had no idea where it was coming from. He was sad about losing Donna, but this sadness was different from that.

It was as though someone had died.


End file.
